Administrative Supervisors’ Rating of Desktop Publishing Competencies Possessed by Office Technology and Management Graduate Workers in North-West Nigeria Polytechnics

This study on supervisors’ rating of Office Technology and Management (OTM) graduate workers competencies in using MS Desktop publishing in North-West Nigerian polytechnics was necessitated by persistent complaints from employers of labour that OTM graduate workers do not perform as expected in the current era of technology.  One research question guided the study, and two null hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance using T-test.  Descriptive survey research design was used for the study.  The population of the study constituted 378 supervisors in state and federal polytechnics in North-West Nigeria.  The population was used as the sample. A structured 5-point rating scale questionnaire containing 16 items were developed and validated by experts. Reliability of the instrument was established using split half method and Pearson Product Moment Co-efficient Correlation formula and obtained a reliability co-efficient value of 0.77. The data collected was analysed with mean and standard deviation to answer the research questions and determine homogeneity or otherwise of the respondents. Findings revealed that administrative supervisors in polytechnics in North-West Nigeria rated their Office Technology and Management (OTM) graduate workers as fairly possessing desktop publishing competencies. Gender and the ownership of the institutions have no influence on the respondents’ ratings.  Based on the findings, it was concluded that OTM graduate workers in Polytechnics in North-West Nigeria, do not possess the relevant desktop publishing competencies. It was recommended that The OTM graduate workers should engage in in-service training programmes to improve their competencies in desktop publishing. The administrative supervisors should recommend approval of in-service training for their OTM graduate workers to enhance their computer application competencies.